Thoughts from Atheist Vegan Pantheist Bobbie James

Saturday, August 26, 2017

What is the smartest business scheme? To make money while selling nothing. Where do we find this? You already know.

Think about how brilliant it is to create a business around nothing, and find followers and tell those followers they must tell everyone else about the business. Expand that business with lots of stories that are nothing but fiction, and continue building an empire. We have multi-million dollar churches with ministers worth multi-millions of dollars, fed by poor people giving their food money because they bought into the nonexistent deal of a Heavenly reward.

The church sells an imaginary god – after all these years, there is absolutely no credible evidence for a god. No matter how great the church makes you feel, or how great the god in your imagination makes you feel, there is no evidence for any god, and a lot of evidence that there are not any gods.

The church sells an imaginary savior – there is no evidence for a savior or a need to be saved. We have had plenty of dying and rising saviors in our history and none of them have been real. Our current savior is patterned after the old stories of saviors, and there is no credible historical evidence that Jesus ever lived. A “vision” is not a sighting and is a scam. Thus, you are being sold “nothing.”

They have a book that contradicts itself throughout and we know most of the events never happened. We can tell the gospels were written by looking at the Septuagint, and crazy story lines were created in order to “fulfill prophesies.” Yet, you believe them because you are taught that you are doing God’s service and will go to Heaven if you believe.

They teach you from the time you are young that a violent god is “loving and just” and they show you how to ignore the obvious problems in that book. (Perhaps this is why so many people stubbornly see world leaders as good when they are destructive, and stay loyal even when they themselves are losing money because of that leader. This sheepish behavior is taught.)

The con artists of the church give you tools to keep you giving to their business. They tell you to propagate when we know it is detrimental for all life for us to have a high population. They wrap their beliefs in faith – faith is a belief when there is no evidence – and they make you feel special and teach you to proudly proclaim that “all of it is true.” They insist you are the only unique species that has a soul – yet we have never found a soul, except for normal feelings in the brain that are not unique to humans. They tell you that you must have faith and that others are evil, when “others” see the bad things that happen due to what the church teaches you to believe. Most churches teach you prejudice and nationalism and to accept and excuse violence. You may claim that is not true and that you are not violent, but you accept and excuse the violent stories of the Bible, and most believe the U.S. is being smiled upon by God. Most churches teach you it is fine to kill animals and that God insists their only purpose for living is to be a gift for you. Most churches teach you discrimination and how to cover it up. “I love everybody” rings very hollow.

They hold your mind captive when they tell you that it is a sin to doubt, or, when they see that doesn't work, they tell you that you can doubt but you must come to them and they will “counsel you” and get rid of your doubt (by using their book and insisting it is right). They then capture your whole family by making your world revolve around the church. Sure, you may enjoy the people, and the feelings and emotions; but that does not make what they teach you true or the best for our society. Ignoring "the world" and calling it evil does not excuse you from the problems your church's teachings have created in our world. The worst is the time wasted in children's lives, who sit for hours in church when they should be exploring, playing and creating, and who learn very little about how to become a truly peaceful person in today's society.

Saturday, August 5, 2017

The religious lesson not to judge other people can be valid when people are catty and unfairly pick on someone. But judging people and situations is very important in life. The modern way of being spiritual instead of religious has its flaws, especially since some of the old rules have seeped into the spiritual beliefs. “Spiritual” people tend to think that “anything goes” and they practice being loving and having inner peace by ignoring what is bad in life. They equate spirituality with remaining calm and serene at all times, and shut down confrontations with “Don’t judge me.” The words “You are judging me” are uttered as a very effective and accepted defense, because it stems from the old religions and makes a person who is judging feel sinful. But the outcome is that it enables the person doing wrong to continue, without any more criticism. Between the spiritual people who ignore problems and the fundamentalists who believe ancient, outdated rules are “absolute,” we have a system where change, if it happens at all, happens at a snail’s pace. How can you change someone if you are not allowed to talk about it?

I recently had a brief discussion with a yoga instructor who was not a Hatha yoga instructor, but who instead was an Ayurvedic instructor. Ayurvedic instructors practice a lot of pseudoscience in the name of yoga. This woman calls it “ancient science” and claims I know nothing about it. Well, it only takes looking at about ten Ayurvedic websites to see that their “ancient science” is outdated and inaccurate and never was run through any scientific method! Some of the statements made on their websites are absurd, but I will not repeat them here. After all, I was not criticizing the woman about all the inaccuracies; I was just responding to a claim she put on her post about milk.

Ayurvedic yogis claim that raw, whole milk is the best to drink (although I bet most of the students and teachers purchase regular or organic milk from the grocery store), and they even believe that a baby can be fed regular milk if a mother cannot nurse. This is horrible! There are strong links to Type 1 Diabetes from giving a baby under one year of age regular cow’s milk. Further, whole milk is full of fat, and children in America all have striations of fat on their hearts by age three due to what we feed them.

Here is what led to my comments on her post, which I kept up just long enough for her to read and respond. This woman went to a vegan dinner, posted pictures of the lovely food, then put in her status that “she was not vegan because Ayurvedics ‘need’ milk.” Does anyone else see the absurdity of a philosophy of peace that not only causes animal suffering, but also the claim that a person needs to drink milk in order to be spiritual?! The woman probably drank milk a good share of her life, but drinking it never was spiritual until she started doing Ayurvedic yoga and mindlessly following all the rules.

The websites make a claim that milk is the healthiest food and that whole milk is best and that milk opens up pathways in the body. No! Whole milk closes arteries and cow’s milk leaches calcium from people’s bones! I bet this woman feels she absolutely has to believe in the magical milk properties because her income is probably tied into her doing yoga (I have not checked whether she makes money at this, but I figure she does).

I checked many Ayurvedic websites and a few of them worried about the abuse of factory farming, but mostly worried from the standpoint that it was not healthy to drink such contaminated milk. NONE of them suggested plant-based milk! Seriously, would their whole belief system fall apart if they drank milk from a plant instead?

How can people feel spiritual when they are consuming a product that requires cows to be given growth hormones and are genetically modified to give anywhere from 5-20 times the milk they normally should give, resulting in terribly swollen udders and sore legs and the need to be milked three times a day. How can a person be loving when any male cow born to dairy cows is either shot or sold as a veal cow, to be tortured his whole short life? And the mother cows? They are kept pregnant, and are put on a rape rack soon after giving birth so they can be impregnated again, so they will continuously give birth and then lactate so that humans can drink cow’s milk. The baby cows are fed formula. The poor mother cries for her baby, and the baby is separated from her and from all other cows, and the babies are not allowed to touch any other cow or calf so that there is no chance for germs. The final kicker? Dairy cows are impregnated one last time when they are close to slaughtering. Before they rip the skin off the mother cow at slaughter so they can use her skin to make leather, they cut open her belly and let the fetus fall to the floor so they can use the developing calf fetus’ skin for fine leather.

Most farmers in the U.S. claim to be Christian, and they use this weak, tired excuse to abuse: “God put the animals here for us.” If they are not religious, then they use the excuse: “Animals kill animals. It’s the way of life.” No! No other animal kidnaps other animals, breeds them by artificial insemination, tortures them for months or even years and then kills them when they don’t need to eat them for survival. Humans are frugivores if you want to talk about “the way of life and natural cycles.” We are adaptable, so we should use or ability to adapt to be kind. Do you think if a farmer thinks kind thoughts but keeps up this torture it does any good for the situation and makes the farmer spiritual? Only in his head.

Back to the Ayurvedic yoga: How can a person follow a “good-feeling” yoga program that takes some of its beliefs from the Abrahamic playbook? The woman’s response to me was, “I love animals. They give their gifts to us. Blessed be to all animals. Don’t judge me; I don’t judge you!” See? It’s the speciest, Abrahamic idea that animals are just here for our use.
“Blessed be to all animals?” She thinks she is being spiritual and made this proclamation as if she had some special powers! In her head, she does not feel guilty because she said the animals are blessed. Walk the walk, woman. Don’t just talk the talk. Break free from rules that are wrong. Take action instead of pretending to be spiritual and feeling the comfort of your empty words. Switch to plant milk. No other kind way exists.

Wednesday, June 14, 2017

I don’t understand prophets. A prophet is supposed to be divinely inspired and one who relays messages from God. Religions differ on whether God is speaking in words to the prophets, or whether the prophets receive a message from God through thoughts that enter the prophets’ heads when they are “in the receiving mode.” Religions even differ on the method of becoming a prophet – some are specifically called by God for this position and some are elected by the church.

It is odd that prophets are so cultural. A few years back, becoming a prophetess was quite popular, with women proclaiming titles such as Prophetess Smith or Prophetess Caroline; I saw it all over the Internet within a certain portion of the Christian religion. Think about that – it only happens in certain churches and in cultures that allow women such positions. You would think God would be calling women worldwide in a consistent manner.

How does one become a prophet? Usually, after hearing about the idea, at some point they are called. Sometimes they have been receiving messages from God for years and just know they are special. And as I said before, some are elected. A few people will argue that anyone can be a prophet, but according to Christian sites, a prophet is specifically called and it is a job that they must take whether they want it or not. Just keep in mind there are a lot of prophets in the church who are mistaken and did not receive that type of message from God. Such positions are always defined on websites with warning messages about false prophet-calling, and definitions are never clear-cut.

Oddly, there are prophets for all the Abrahamic religions. It seems that Christians, Muslims and Jews are all getting divine messages from God, and God is “speaking” directly to them. You would think God would correct whichever religions and sects are wrong and would let the prophets know not to deliver messages in the wrong religion. For example, if a prophet were Muslim and Christianity turns out to be the “real religion,” you would think God would tell the Muslim prophet that he had the wrong book, and that he needs to spread messages of Christianity. It’s rather mean, don’t you think, for God to tell prophets to spread Islamic messages when those messages will convert others to Islam and doom all of them to Hell?

To help you understand my thoughts, what if Islam is the right religion and all of the Christians have been told the wrong beliefs by prophets who received their messages from God and all the Christians and prophets of Christianity are doomed to Hell because of it? (I know you are saying right now that it is not possible because your religion is so much better than theirs is - I know how people think when it comes to defending God.)

Think about why God would send out prophesies to other religions. Because he is still doing this! Your next defense of God will probably be: “It doesn’t matter. At some point, those people who get messages to be a different religion would have heard about Christianity and would have heard about Jesus at some point in their lives and would have had an opportunity to switch to Christianity.” Really? The only thing they are taught is that Christianity is the wrong religion, just as you are taught that Islam is the wrong religion.
God is a little more effective in his conversions to Christianity now that we have the Internet, so some places in the middle-East are being infiltrated by Christianity that never were before, but there are still many places on Earth that never hear positive words about Christianity or any other religion than their own.

Let us not leave unexplored the idea that perhaps it is not God who is sending the “wrong” messages to the prophets in other religions. Most religions have built-in to their religions the ideas of “false gods” and “false prophets.” But if you think about it, do you believe there are gods in the sky, false gods, giving false prophetic messages to their prophets to spread around? How many false gods are in the sky?

If you decide that there is only one god in the sky, do you think there are false prophets who are purposefully making up messages to fool people?
I think neither idea is likely. What is more likely is that all prophets genuinely believe they have been given the gift of prophesy, but are receiving messages they created themselves in their own brains.

Monday, May 15, 2017

What follows is a talk I gave in front of a few progressive women. As usual, I put this togetherby jumping from website to website and gathering information without saving my sources. So Iwill try to put the sources I know I used at the end.

SPEECH ON LGBTQ ISSUES

My plan was to talk exclusively about transgender issues, but I found so much
commonality between transgender rights, gay rights and all the new gender
identities that are coming to light, that this talk will be a mixture of all of it!
We know morally that we should accept all LGBTQ people regardless of whether
it is a choice or a biological issue. They are people, so they should have equal
rights. It’s as simple as that.

However, I will let you know, right up front, it is biological.

Oddly, some transgender and homosexual people would rather not know whether it
is biological and they don’t want research results spread to the public. The reason
is that they are afraid if the conservatives know that gayness begins in the womb
and it is largely about hormones in the womb, they fear that conservatives will try
to find a way to “correct” it. What if some pharmaceutical company develops a
patch to regulate hormone flow and change the fetus’s gender orientation? It would
be manipulating a person’s very essence. It is not LGBTQ people who need to
change; it is society that needs to change.

The reason I think people should be told it is biological, is that 70% of people
accept LGBTQ people if they realize that it is biological. It is sad that a person’s
gender identity has to be proven in order to be accepted, but that is our culture, so I
will supply some evidence that might be helpful. My purpose is to increase
understanding in a positive manner.

Let’s get familiar with some new terms. Facebook has 58 gender identity terms to
choose from, but I will just go over the most common ones! This is about gender
identity.

Cisgender – most of us are probably cisgender – having the same gender identity
as what matches our birth certificates.

Transgender – having a different gender identity than what is on the birth
certificate.

Now these are all similar:

Non-binary gender. The person doesn’t fit either the male or female category. I
have heard the term “non-binary” a lot.

Pangender. The feeling of being many genders.

Bigender. Goes between being male and female genders.

Gender Fluid. Switching between genders.

See how similar these are? The key is to find the identity description that best
matches who you feel you are.

Here is another common term: Queer. This is an umbrella term. It means being a
nonconforming gender - and proud of it. Non-binary, pansexual, bi-gender, and
gender fluid can all fit under the term “queer.”

One more - Intersex. It is a term for a combination of chromosomes, hormones, or
internal sex organs that differs from the expected patterns of male or female. The
odds could be 1 of every 2,000 or as high as 1 of every 200 people being intersex.
There is a model named Hanne Gaby Odiele speaking out on this now, as she is
Intersex; being born with male parts inside her body. She was forced to get an
operation when she was a child to take out the male parts, and that is just not
necessary.

So things are not as cut and dried as they seem when it comes to gender!

There are at least 1,400,000 trans people in the U.S. and .6% of the world is
transgender. And there most likely are more, since many hide their identities.

LET’S DO SOME COMPARISONS WITH OUR FELLOW ANIMALS

The reason I bring up animals is that homosexuality exists throughout the animal
kingdom, is common, and is natural.

There are over 1,500 species of animals that exhibit some form of homosexual
behavior. 8% of sheep are exclusively homosexual. With Giraffes – 94% of all
sexual activity is homosexual. Flamingos have monogamous partners - it can be
two males, two females or a male and a female. Macaque monkeys have social
hierarchies and power based on lesbianism. Some snails have both male and
female organs (They are Intersex)! That just gives you an idea – I could go on and
on.

When female rat fetuses are administered male hormones before they are born, the
female rats exhibit male sexual behavior during adulthood. Similarly, when male
rat fetuses are given a steroid drug before birth to counteract the self-produced
male hormone, the male rat exhibits female sexual behavior as an adult.

It should be pretty clear already that this is biological and has always been a part of
human history.

Here is a fascinating, yet tragic example – in human form. In the 60’s, a baby boy
from Canada was having a circumcision, and his penis was accidentally burned
almost completely off. So “experts” decided he would be raised as a female, and
the baby underwent surgery and was given hormones to become female. He was
given a lot of experimental psychological sessions, which turned out to be harmful.
Now, remember, his brain in the womb developed as a male – and his brain always
told him he was a male. He was extremely depressed, and as an adult, he
committed suicide.

ARE THERE ANY BODY DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GAY AND STRAIGHT
PEOPLE?

There are tendencies toward minor body differences between gay and straight
people. Here are a few that are interesting.

Gay men, like straight women, have an increased density of fingerprint ridges on
the thumb and the pinkie of the left hand. You can compare your right and left
hands when you get home!

There is a tendency for arms, legs, and hands of WHITE gay men to be smaller
relative to their stature. Lesbians are more likely to have longer bone growth in
their arms, legs, and hands. It probably has to do with hormones either being
released or inhibited during growth of the fetus.

Gay men and lesbians have a 50 percent greater chance of being left-handed or
ambidextrous than their straight counterparts. I’m left handed, but I am not
lesbian. So again, these are tendencies and percentages of people.

Mentally rotating a 3-D object, straight men and lesbian women tend to do better
than gay men and straight females.

The hypothalamus in your brain is responsible for all sorts of things, including
regulating hormones and sex drive. In straight men, a cell cluster in the
hypothalamus is more than twice the size of the cluster in straight women. In gay
men, that cell cluster is similar in size to straight women’s.

In brain scans, there are differences in the shape of the brain.
Transgender people’s brains, for instance, more closely match the shape of their
identity gender than those of their natal gender.

You might notice that quite often a gay man and straight woman are similar and a
lesbian and straight man are similar - but not always, of course. There are many
variations of similarities and differences.

Here is another possibility for how a fetus becomes homosexual or transgender. I
have read and read about epigenes, but I find understanding them difficult, and
hope that I explain them correctly. At least it will give you an idea of what their
role is in the body. Epigenes are biochemicals that are on top of genes and can
control how the gene is expressed – whether it is turned on or off, and how much.
Epigenes from the parents are supposed to be wiped out at the moment of
fertilization. There is supposed to be a clean slate, but some scientists think that an
epigene from the father might slip in and it signals a gene in the fetus to accept
more testosterone, which in the case of a female fetus, could masculinize her. And
if an epigene from the mother slips in, it could signal a gene in the fetus to reject
testosterone, which could feminize a male fetus. This is not fact yet in gender
identity, but there is evidence for it and more research is being done.

Now this is really cool. In any family, the second-born son is 33% more likely
than the first to be gay, and the third son is 33% more likely than the second, and
so on, as though there is some sort of “maternal memory,” something that stays in
the woman. Like her immune system becomes more effective at fighting the male
fetal hormones with each new male fetus. And she feminizes the fetus. The irony
of parents, especially a mother who is angry that her son is homosexual or trans, it
is likely that it is because of her.

And they have done enough research to know it’s not your upbringing, not
relationship with parents, whether you were raised by your grandma (I originally
thought that was the reason), not early-childhood sexual experiences and whether
you go to a Catholic school that makes you gay or trans.

So it is all about the hormones in the womb, what kind of hormones (there’s more
than just testosterone – I only mention testosterone because it is the strongest
influence), the amount the fetus receives from its positioning, and whether the
hormones are accepted or kept from the fetus by many different means.

LET’S TALK ABOUT TWINS - THE FAMOUS TWIN STUDIES

People always talk about twin studies. Why is one identical twin gay and one
straight? Even though the genes are the same and the DNA is the same, the
activity of those genes is not the same. Also, there is different positioning in the
womb between the twins; one can get a greater blood supply, and the placenta and
umbilical cords can influence each twin differently. So one could get a different
concentration of hormones than the other for instance.

That said, there is still a lot of sharing with identical twins, and several studies
have shown that identical twins are more often both transgender than fraternal
twins who each have their own amniotic sac in the womb.

WHAT DO TRANSGENDER PEOPLE FACE IN SOCIETY

49% of trans people attempt suicide. 18% of homeless people in cities such as
Chicago are transgender. In 2001 it was found that transgender people were kept
out of shelters because shelters are separated by male and female. They didn’t
know who to put them with, so they turned them away.

At least 63% of transgender individuals experience acts of discrimination on a
regular basis, including housing discrimination, job discrimination, and physical
assault, even in the workplace. Transgender people are not always treated
respectfully by police, so many transgender people won’t report violence that
happens to them. Male to female transwomen of color have the most violence
against them and are killed the most.

Families often reject transgender teens and they end up incarcerated or homeless.
Even successful transgender couples continue to face barriers to fostering and
adopting in many places. Some insurance plans still have exclusions for
transgender-related care. They face day to day prejudice, such as unsympathetic
nurses and doctors.

Think about what will happen if the American Health Care Act under Trump is
passed. Transgender will be a preexisting condition and won’t be covered.
Doctors can claim religious differences and refuse any kind of service.
Planned Parenthood currently helps transgender people and many of their clinics
have hormone treatments for them, which has been so helpful since most trans
people are low income. Of course, Planned Parenthood is being attacked and shut
down at many locations.

Trans people need accurate and consistent IDs to open bank accounts, start new
jobs, enroll in school, and travel. However, the name and gender change process is
complicated and sometimes just too expensive. Moreover, many state and federal
governments have intrusive requirements, such as proof of surgery, with a doctor’s
affidavit or a court order (Illinois still is like that, although it is being challenged)
and this has made it impossible for some trans people to update their IDs. Think
about this – many trans people do not want to have an operation. They are fine
without the surgery! Yet, to get a new birth certificate, driver’s license, and
passport, they must show proof of surgery. It shows such a lack of understanding.
Most cannot afford an operation. As a result, a third of trans people have not
updated any of their records or IDs.

And just to let you know, almost 99% of trans people are happy with their gender
reassignment, whether with surgery or without. There is only 1% that regrets the
transition.

WHAT IS GOING ON

North Carolina recently had the “the infamous bathroom bill” but it was partially
repealed, because they lost too much business. So boycotting can be fairly
successful. They replaced this bill with another bill and one part of the new bill
says that no changes can be made to it until 2020, after the next election. So no
specific protections can be added for LGBTQ people.

As far as bathrooms, I would bet many of us have had male to female transgender
people in our restrooms and never knew it. *Note: Someone from the meeting
voiced the opinion of most liberal women, proclaiming, “Who cares!” when it
came to whether there were transwomen in women’s bathrooms. I said, “Exactly!”

Only 15 states and the District of Columbia prohibit all forms of discrimination -
15 out of 50. Transgender people are told they are protected under categories such
as the Civil Rights Act and Fair Housing Act, but trans people are not specifically
named as being protected in any of them. Since we know they are discriminated
against, they need specific protections under the law.

I will say that 15,000 trans people are serving in the military today. 150,000 either
are serving or have served. Up until last year, they had to keep it hidden, but now
they can openly serve in the military.

WHAT IS NEEDED

Visibility – There are positives and negatives to visibility. We need positive
images of transgender people in the media and society. I think that is definitely the
way to go. Unfortunately, some hateful people might become violent if they feel
“the old ways” are being changed. Still, ultimately, there has to be visibility for
change to occur, and no one should have to hide to protect racists’ feelings.

THE LATEST

We’ve had one success. Mark Green, Trump's nominee for Army secretary
resigned. I think it is due to the continued pressure of the Democrats because of
Green’s derogatory comments about Muslims and LGBTQ people.

Texas and Alabama are enacting laws to make adoption and fostering more
difficult. Michigan, South Dakota, North Dakota and Virginia already have such
laws, called “religious freedom laws.” And now Trump has signed an executive
order about enacting religious freedom laws federally. And he will be sued.

In Tennessee, they just passed a “Law limiting undefined words.” It’s bizarre!
They passed a law that said words that are undefined will have their natural and
ordinary meaning. So words like husband will mean a male and wife will mean a
female. It will prevent same-sex spouses and LGBT parents from being treated the
same as heterosexual families under the law. So often, these silly sounding laws
are underhanded and are for the purpose of discriminating against a minority.

There is another law in Tennessee that is being considered where children born
through artificial insemination would not be considered “legitimate” children of
their parents. That would be discriminatory against LGBTQ people and couples
and single people who can’t have children without help.

WE, as women, need to support transgender people. We know what it is like to be
thought of as a lesser being.

So we have to continue to speak up.

The only actions I can think of at this moment: The usual letter writing. Spread the
word by social media about transgender and gay rights. Sign petitions. Jump in
the conversation when something comes up. Don’t laugh if someone else makes
fun of them. Contact the local GLAAD Group and see where we can help.
Sources I used and may have quoted from:

Tuesday, April 18, 2017

If anyone truly buys the claim that the mom and pop farm down the street that they went to to get their animal for dinner was killed “humanely,” then I think we should examine two possible ways they killed the animal. You may find this offensive, but you must learn what actually happens to the animals on the “happy farm,” who are fortunate to be slaughtered at home.

1. The most popular method for killing chickens and turkeys that is considered humane (by meat eaters’ standards) is called the “killing cone” method. Let’s run through it, but instead of using a chicken, let’s use a dog, so you can relate better.

You look at your puppy at 10 months of age and decide it is a good night to eat a meal of dog meat. So you take your puppy to the shed. You pick him up and stuff him upside down into the killing cone, pulling his head out of the lower part of the cone so you have a good view of his neck. Look how snug he is in the cone – he won’t be able to thrash around much. That is so considerate of you! Then, you slice his throat and watch his heart pump out his own blood into a bucket below, so he doesn’t make too much of a mess. He does thrash some, and have a spasm or two, and then he settles down – still. You decide he is dead after a minute, even though experts state that it can take four to eight minutes for the dog to die, depending on whether you hit both jugulars or not. But since you don’t know that, after a minute, you pick up the dog and throw him onto a hot grill in order to singe off his fur.

Not humane enough for you? Are you ready for the most humane method possible? Here we go! I have seen this method used with turkeys, but we will again use a dog as a stand-in.

2. Your dog is playing with other dogs in a pen. Several people come to the farm, excited that they will “experience nature” and kill their own dog. You are the guide. Each person picks out a young dog to kill, and you pick out one yourself. You put your puppy in front of you and then sit on him gently so he can’t thrash around. Everyone else does the same. You each put a bag over your dog’s head so he won’t see what is coming. You take a knife, gently stretch out the dog’s neck while you coo, coo, so softly to him and encourage him. Then you cut his throat and as he tries to thrash around, you hold him firmly, and thank him for giving his life to you. You talk to the other fellow killers: “Can you feel the life-blood coming out of him? It is nature’s cycle! We are doing what we are supposed to do – loving our animals as we take their lives for ourselves.”

I personally thought the woman who ran this business and did this with turkeys had lost her mind, but apparently this is accepted in our culture. It is the most humane method I have seen. But do you notice the betrayal toward the animal?

Please do not call any of these killings humane. They are not. People only call it humane so they can eat an animal guilt-free.

If you have any other methods of killing an animal you want to discuss, I know about “humane” CO2 killing too. Or just substitute your dog for the animal (in your mind) and run it by your own conscience and see if you still think these killings are humane.

Saturday, April 1, 2017

I wrote The Battle of Bulimic Barb in order to help others conquer this eating disorder, and to help families and friends gain more knowledge and understanding about the illness.

My book
is not to take the place of therapy, but will give tips of what helped me, and my personal analysis of my 11 year battle with
bulimia. I left out nothing, sharing even the most embarrassing moments. Dare I say, it is entertaining, and
thought-provoking!

Today,
April 1st through Thursday, April 6th, the Kindle version of The Battle of
Bulimic Barb will be available to purchase for just 99 cents! If you ever thought
about reading it, this is the week to order it!

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

There are few areas in the U.S.
where carbon capture could even work, because of the type of land requirements.
Our town happens to have the right land, and we have a small test model.

Carbon capture is expensive and in order to capture the CO2, you first have to
burn the fossil fuels! Carbon capture equipment on a factory slows down the
factory and requires more coal to produce the same amount of energy than a
plant without carbon capture! Supporters of this
waste of time ignore that these coal burning plants give off other toxic
substances. This is NOT clean energy!

The first plant with this technology is at least
ten years away, if they do it at all. Many of the projects have been abandoned!
At best, carbon capture will never be successful enough to make a dent in CO2,
and at worst, it will continue to be a scam and waste of time.

When Trump says "Have you heard of clean
coal?" now you will know that he is pulling one over on you.

Speak up for real clean energy - solar and wind.
Let's demand more progress in those areas!

About Me

I became an atheist thanks to YouTube! For years I hovered between having a God, being "spiritual" and being agnostic - in fact, most of my life. There was only a short period of time when I was a Jesus Freak along with my brother, but I did not fit in with his group. I attended a religious college for two years and felt like the "odd woman out" there as well. One day on the main page of AOL there was a picture of Kirk Cameron and another picture of a pretty young blond woman with curly long hair and a cute little chin. They said she got more "hits" on YouTube than Kirk did! Of course, it was Zomgitscriss! I watched her video and thought, "You know, I think like she does, but she is a lot smarter than I am!" I watched more of her videos, and she said it was just a hop, skip and jump from agnosticism to atheism. I thought, "Oh, I could never be an atheist - it's such a harsh word!" I decided to look at her favorites and saw a big guy with long hair who looked like he belonged in a motorcycle gang. I smirked and thought, "This will be good - let's see what he has to say," thinking he had to sound dumb. It turned out to be Aron Ra, and I was treated to video after video about evolution, taxonomy and phylogeny - subjects I knew nothing about! What an education! One day, I clicked on Pangeaprogress' videos. I saw his beautiful nature videos of Africa. Suddenly, a pack of lions surrounded an antelope and started eating her, slowly, starting at the hips and wherever they could bite. I was totally shocked. I had been overprotected a good share of my life, and my mother always told me that animals "always went right for the neck and the death was over in an instant." Well, it wasn't. From that moment on, I was an atheist. No God could sit by and watch such cruelty and pain and suffering and allow it to happen. No excuses. This is how YouTube converted me, and my eyes have been opened to so many new ideas thanks to the Internet!